Black and White Photography · Developing Adventures · expired film · Kodak Film · life · Nikon Camera

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film – Expired 1971

Every year I hope for a cold Christmas. Living in Florida for so long, the heat gets to me. I live for the few and far between cold fronts that make it our way. This year I got my wish. We had a cold Christmas and a week long cold front that I had to take advantage of. Kelsey and I took Lainey to the town square to walk around and take pictures. I brought along my Rolleiflex Original for a separate review, as well as my Nikon F2 loaded with a roll of Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 film that expired in 1971.

the History of Kodak Tri-X Pan Film

According to Kodak’s website, Tri-X was released in 35mm and 120 format in 1954 as EASTMAN TRI-X Panchromatic Negative film, 5233 with an ISO of 200. 400 speed Tri-X came out in the 1960’s. The 400TX film we know today didn’t come about until 2007 and is a re-engineered version of the old film that now has a finer grain and less silver.

My Experience

Once we got to the town square in Tradition to walk around, we realized it happened to be a Jewish celebration of Shabbat, and there was a booming party going on in the square. The band kept asking over the speaker if there were any photographers in the crowd. I wanted to run over and volunteer but was too chicken. I am still working on my faith in my own ability, but that topic is for another day.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Nikon F2 – Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Town Hall

We stayed on the outskirts of the party where I could take pictures. It was late afternoon so the sun was strong and the contrast high, which I liked for this film. It expired more than 50 years ago, so I decided to over-expose the film to make up for any fogging that may have happened over time. I set my Nikon F2 to ISO 80 and I am glad that I did. The film did have some heavy fogging, especially on the ends of the roll.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Sunset

I processed it in Kodak HC110 dilution B for 6 minutes. I probably should have over exposed it even more given the age of the film, but the sun was going down and I didn’t have a tripod. Either way, I really like the results I got, and more importantly, I had a good time with my family.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Kelsey and Lainey
Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Kelsey and Lainey

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Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971
Lamp

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film Expired 1971

I think this is one of my favorite photos of the roll. There was something comical about this big poodle that made me think of a Elliott Erwitt scene.

Kodak Tri-X Pan 400
Rocks lakeside

Final Thoughts

A follower sent me this roll of film a while back. It took me a while to get a chance to finally shoot the roll properly, and now I can’t find the guy who sent it to me to show him my results. His Instagram handle was @ephemeralMental when he sent it. If you know him or are him please let me know in the comments. I would love to thank him.

I had a really great time finally getting out and taking pictures again. It has been rough getting used to being a parent as well as not being able to express myself as often as I used to through this medium. I have so many things I want to accomplish, but not enough time to do it. Hopefully you will stick around to see more.

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Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.

 

 

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10 thoughts on “Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 Film – Expired 1971

  1. Ahhh, the memories… Tri-X and Plus-X were basically my photographic life from 1976 to the winter of 1980. (I lived in Lake Placid, NY, and I switched to Ektachrome during the Olympics, largely because I could get it developed free at the time.) Your work is way better than mine was, though. Beautiful!

  2. I always find B&W film to be a point of aggravation and excitement when using it, never knowing what the results are going to be until I realized my problem was I was not looking at contrast. Once I got that idea, it became easier. You do a great job with it and these pictures are so nice, especially since the film is so old!

  3. B&W film seems to hold up quite well when expired. These shots turned out great! Looks like a fun family outing as well.

  4. These look really good. I can see a tiny amount of evidence in these images of the film’s age, but if you didn’t tell me the film was this old I would have assumed slight underexposure or underdevelopment.

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